Since 1978 when it embarked on sweeping agricultural and industrial reforms, China's economic growth has been remarkable. Its success in transforming itself within just three decades from a very poor low-income country to a successful middle-income country is unparalleled. During this period, however, and in contrast to the first 30 years of the People's Republic, progress in the health sector has been disappointing. For example, during the period 1980-2007, China increased its income per head as a percentage of the OECD average from 3 percent to 15 per cent, but infant mortality fell no faste.

This volume provides a comprehensive review of China's healthcare system and policy reforms in the context of the global economy. Following a value-chain framework, the 16 chapters cover the payers, the providers, and the producers (manufacturers) in China's system. It also provides a detailed analysis of the historical development of China's healthcare system, the current state of its broad reforms, and the uneasy balance between China's market-driven approach and governmental regulation. Most importantly, it devotes considerable attention to the major problems confronting China, including chronic illness, public health, and long-term care and economic security for the elderly. Burns and Liu have assembled the latest research from leading health economists and political scientists, as well as senior public health officials and corporate executives, making this book an essential read for industry professionals, policymakers, researchers, and students studying comparative health systems across the world.

Although China’s new healthcare reform, launched in 2009, has achieved remarkable results in improving China’s medical and healthcare system, it is recognised that there is still room for further improvement. This is especially important as China’s population ages, the prevalence of chronic diseases increases and environment-related health risks worsen. This book reports on a major international research project which examined health trends, modes of health promotion, health finance systems, medical and healthcare innovations and environment-related health risks in China. For each of these key areas, the book considers the current situation in China and likely future trends, explores best practice from a wide range of foreign countries and puts forward proposals for improvements. Overall, the book provides a major assessment of China’s medical and healthcare system and how it should be reformed.

Especially since the 2003 SARS crisis, China’s healthcare system has become a growing source of concern, both for citizens and the Chinese government. China’s once praised public health services have deteriorated into a system driven by economic constraints, in which poor people often fail to get access, and middle-income households risk to be dragged into poverty by the rising costs of care. The New Rural Co-operative Medical System (NRCMS) was introduced to counter these tendencies and constitutes the main system of public health insurance in China today. This book outlines the nature of the system, traces the processes of its enactment and implementation, and discusses its strengths and weaknesses. It argues that the contested nature of the fields of health policy and social security has long been overlooked, and reinterprets the NRCMS as a compromise between opposing political interests. Furthermore, it argues that structural institutional misfits facilitate fiscal imbalances and a culture of non-compliance in local health policy, which distort the outcomes of the implementation and limit the effectiveness of insurance. These dynamics also raise fundamental questions regarding the effectiveness of other areas of the comprehensive New Health Reform, which China has initiated to overhaul its healthcare system.